A source close to Herring told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that the fighter had been offered the rumored bout, plans to accept it, but hasn’t yet signed to make it official.

Neither Herring nor Kongo could immediately be reached for comment.

For Kongo, a victory could thrust the French fighter into immediate title contention. Aside from a close split-decision loss to Carmelo Marrero at UFC 64, Kongo has posted a spotless record in the UFC. The success peaked with an upset unanimous-decision victory over Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic at UFC 75 in September.

Kongo had been a rumored opponent for former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia. Sylvia himself even campaigned for the fight in a post-UFC 77 press conference. However, the former champ was instead tapped to fight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira at UFC 81 next month for the UFC’s interim heavyweight title.

As for Herring, he’ll return to the octagon for the first time since his July loss to Nogueira. After flooring the former PRIDE heavyweight champion with a first-round head kick, Herring backed off from his opponent and allowed him time to recover. Nogueira stormed back for the unanimous-decision victory, and Herring opted to take a short break from competition after the loss.

Herring originally signed on with the UFC a year ago after the UFC purchased — and disbanded — the World Fighting Alliance promotion. He made his UFC debut with an upset loss to Jake O’Brien in January but rebounded for an entertaining unanimous-decision victory over Brad Imes in April.

UFC 82 is headlined by a title fight between UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva and former PRIDE standout Dan Henderson. For the latest UFC 82 fight card, check out the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

A total of 26 fighters got their chance to shine on Saturday as part of UFC 190 at Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena. Now that UFC 190 is in the books, it’s time to commence MMAjunkie’s “Three Stars” ceremony.

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